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Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The Osama bin Laden photos?

It is just one of those days when I do not understand peopleThis first post is completely atypical of what I intend to blog about, but you have to start somewhere. So how did this become my first blog post? People at my office were complaining about the President not releasing the pictures of Osama bin Laden. For the record, I am not a fan of President Obama, but I do not hate him either. With that being said, I think the President is making the correct choice in not showing pictures of Osama bin Laden with his head blown off. The simple reason is that I just don't think it will make the world a better place.

So why am I so disappointed? Simple I was having a discussion at work about this. Several people where demanding that they should show the pictures. The reason they say they want to see the pictures is that they want proof. After all seeing is believing right?

No it really isn't and hasn't for a very long time. I work at a software company and I am shocked by the idea that I am the only one that has ever heard of Photoshop. We discussed that photos could be faked, but that didn't seem to work. Then they said "well experts can tell the difference". Maybe but "experts" have been fooled in the past. As far as proof goes, all that proves is that the expert didn't think it was faked. So at this point, I thought that we could all agree that showing the picture is no more proof than the word of the President, the word of the Navy Seals that carried out the mission, the DNA test results, the crew of the carrier where they buried him at sea, and even various terrorist organizations? No. The final argument I got was "just because you say it is so doesn't make it so!". No it doesn't, but I am willing to stand by the statement that a picture on TV is not proof.

If it is not for proof, why would anybody want to see a man with his head blown off? I can only think of two reason.1. They do not like being told that they shouldn't see this.2. They want to satisfy their need for revenge by seeing Osama bin Laden's head blown off.

To the former group all I can say is I know how you feel. I hate being told that I don't need to know or see this. However, I simply ask you to consider this question: What will it help? Will seeing those pictures make the world a better place? I honestly do not think it will. If you really feel that it will, then we have an honest difference of opinon.

To the latter group, I suggest that you think about it. Is this even healthy for you? I have heard people say things like "Why not show them?" and "Why do we care? They don't care about inflaming us!" Or worse ,"If it was one of our guys they would be dragging him through the street and spitting on them!" That is all true, there are people that would do that. A lot of people that would in fact. You see them on TV and think they are disgusting.

I am no fan of President Obama but his actions here have increased my respect for him. Now it is time for the people of the US to do the right thing as well. Time for us to say that we actually trust the President when he says that we have taken out Osama bin Laden. It is also time for us to be proud of a our President for deciding to do the right thing and not show those pictures just to satisfy some critics.

My next post hopefully with have nothing more political in it than OS/X vs Windows or AMD vs Intel.